South Africa's
government scaled back the influence of its minister for
AIDS policy, who has been pilloried for questioning the
effectiveness of antiretroviral drug treatments and
for promoting a diet of beetroot, garlic, and African
potatoes as an effective treatment for AIDS.
A group of
international scientists called for Health Minister Dr.
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, nicknamed ''Dr. Beetroot,''
to be fired, and they labeled South Africa's program
''inefficient and immoral.''
Government
spokesman Themba Maseko defended the minister but said
Friday that the Cabinet had appointed a committee
headed by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to
oversee the implementation of the country's AIDS
program.
''We need to
shift focus from saying the problem in the program is the
minister of health,'' Maseko said.
In an open letter
to President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday, 81 international
AIDS scientists called the health minister an embarrassment
to South Africa who has undermined HIV science
and who has no international respect.
The scientists
include American Nobel Laureate David Baltimore and Dr.
Robert Gallo, a codiscoverer of the virus that causes AIDS
and developer of the first HIV blood test. They called
for an end to South Africa's ''disastrous
pseudoscientific policies'' and urged Mbeki to remove the
health minister immediately.
With the letter
the scientists joined mounting calls by AIDS activists
and opposition parties for the president to fire
Tshabalala-Msimang.
South Africa has
an estimated 5.5 million people infected with HIV, a
number second only to India and one that amounts to about an
eighth of estimated cases worldwide. On average, more
than 900 people die of AIDS each day in South Africa.
The government said Thursday that the adult death rate
had climbed significantly over a seven-year period largely
because of AIDS.
Mbeki previously
has expressed doubts about the connection between HIV
and AIDS and along with Tshabalala-Msimang has questioned
the effectiveness of antiretroviral drugs in treating
the disease.
Tshabalala-Msimang's office said in a statement Friday that
there was a campaign aimed at deliberately
misrepresenting the government's program to fight the
disease.
Her statement and
the Cabinet reacted not only to the scientists' letter
but also to other attacks on its policies at the
International AIDS conference in Toronto last month,
including a scathing one by Stephen Lewis, the U.N.
special envoy for AIDS in Africa.
''It is the only
country in Africa ... whose government is still obtuse,
dilatory, and negligent about rolling out treatment,'' Lewis
said. ''It is the only country in Africa whose
government continues to promote theories more worthy
of a lunatic fringe than of a concerned and
compassionate state.''
The scientists
noted that at the AIDS conference the South African
exhibition featured garlic, lemons, and African potatoes,
''with the implication that these dietary elements are
alternative treatments.''
Maseko, the
government spokesman, said the health minister had made it
clear that South Africa's program included antiretrovirals
and nutrition, but that she might have given the
impression the focus was on nutrition and specific
nutrients.
''Nutrition is
not an alternative to antiretrovirals or forms of
treatment. This has always been the government approach on
this matter,'' Maseko said. ''Equally, the
misconception that antiretrovirals are a cure for AIDS
is not only misleading but dangerous as it creates false
hopes.''
The government,
which did not provide AIDS drugs until forced to do so by
a 2002 court ruling, said its AIDS program is now the
largest in the world. It estimates it treats 140,000
people with antiretroviral drugs.
However, that
number is less than half of the target of 380,000 the
government set in 2003 and well below the 500,000 South
Africans that the scientists estimate now need the
drugs to survive. (Terry Leonard, AP)